Author: staff

Earlier this month, Ireland threatened to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel’s bid were to proceed. “RTÉ believes that Ireland’s participation would be unacceptable given the appalling loss of life that continues in Gaza”, Irish public broadcaster said in a press release on 12 September. The move was the latest in a long line of demonstrations, boycotts and calls for sanctions, as the majority of Irish people remain highly supportive of Palestine and critical of Israel. 71% of those polled believe that the Palestinians live in an apartheid set up by Israel, according to a poll carried out…

Published on 30/09/2025 – 14:32 GMT+2 A Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Poland, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said on Tuesday. Volodymyr Z. was detained by police officers in the central city of Pruszków, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his arrest. He has been transferred to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. The man, whose full name wasn’t disclosed due to privacy rules, was detained on a European arrest warrant that was issued…

The Spanish Constitution requires that the draft state budget (PGE) must be submitted to Congress at least three months before the expiry of the previous year’s budget, so before 30 September. It also establishes that, if the new budgets are not approved before 1 January of the following year, the previous year’s budgets will be automatically extended until there are new accounts. This is precisely what has been happening since 2023. Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government, still operating under accounts from two years ago, has not yet approved either the fiscal framework or the spending cap, and for the third consecutive…

Low-cost carrier Ryanair has announced that it will only accept digital boarding passes starting in November. The airline will require passengers to check in online and generate their boarding pass on the Ryanair app. Printed paper boarding passes will no longer be accepted. The move has raised concerns about elderly passengers who may not own or be comfortable using a smartphone. Travellers are also questioning what they should do if their phone runs out of battery, is stolen or they lose internet connection. Here’s how the new policy will work and why paper boarding passes won’t be completely eliminated in…

Merz’s comments come after the U.S. president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the White House on Monday that they’ve reached a tentative agreement on the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza. The proposal calls for Hamas to disarm, return all the hostages within 72 hours and relinquish power, according to an outline of the plan released by the White House. In return, Israeli forces would withdraw and release around 2,000 Gazans, prisoners and detainees, according to the proposal. Hamas has not yet agreed to the plan. Germany is prepared to assist with implementing the peace plan and…

“The truth is that at the moment, the whole green thing, the net nero thing, is switching working class communities off. People are not buying it.” His comments come ahead of a decision on Labour’s plans for the North Sea after the government proposed a ban on new oil drilling licenses. But Smith urged Labour not to “fudge” the policy, warning that its approach was already costing the party support ahead of crunch Scottish Parliament elections next year. “If they don’t listen to us, they’re going to face some harsh realities,” the union boss warned. The GMB general secretary also…

Published on 30/09/2025 – 12:30 GMT+2 The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has launched its latest experimental model, which claims to handle a large amount of data and costs less than its previous models. The company sparked a frenzy in January when it came onto the scene with R1, an AI model and chatbot that the company claimed was cheaper and performed just as well as OpenAI’s rival ChatGPT model.  However, some countries banned government agencies from using DeepSeek, including Italy, the United States, and South Korea, citing national security concerns.  On Monday, the company unveiled DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp, which is…

Prosecutors alleged Guo was secretly employed by a Chinese spy agency and passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament, collected personal information on AfD leadership and spied on Chinese opposition figures and dissidents. They also accused him of being the handler for a second spy, a Chinese national identified by authorities as Yaqi X., who did not work for Krah. Prosecutors requested seven-and-a-half years in jail. Krah, who is no longer an MEP and serves as a lawmaker in the German Bundestag, has long maintained his ignorance about the allegations against Guo and testified in court…

Updated: 30/09/2025 – 12:00 GMT+2 Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this September 30th, 2025 – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel. … More

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was imposing 10% tariffs on imported timber and lumber and a 25% rate on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and certain upholstered furniture, including sofas and armchairs. In his announcement on Monday, Trump said that an investigation came to the conclusion that “wood products are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States”. According to the statement, the wood industry in the US has ample raw material, but imports have weakened domestic manufacturing capacity to…